Publisher's Synopsis
Petroleum fluids vary in color, odor, and physicochemical properties. Generally many compounds are known to be present in petroleum fluids. The number of carbon atoms in the hydrocarbons and other organic compounds present in petroleum fluids can vary from one (as in methane) to over a hundred (as in asphaltenes and heavy paraffins). Phase behavior has many applications in petroleum engineering. The reservoir engineer relies on pressure/volume/temperature (PVT) relations to calculate oil and gas reserves, production forecasts, and the efficiency of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. Most reservoir calculations require PVT properties at reservoir temperature. Production engineers' use phase behavior data for surface separator design and to calculate flow in pipe, where such calculations are made over a range of temperatures from surface to reservoir conditions. P During their production, transportation and processing petroleum fluids may go through a number of phase changes, which include separation of gases from liquid streams, separation of liquids from gas streams and separation of crystalline solids, colloids and aggregates from liquid or vapor streams. The latter is mostly due to precipitation and / or deposition of diamondoids, wax and asphaltenes. In view of the complexity of petroleum fluids, study and understanding of their phase behavior is still a challenging and an industrially important task. Such an understanding will help us to design a more economical route for the related production, transportation and refining projects. The complexity of the phase behavior in petroleum fluids is due to the existence of the variety and polydispersity of hydrocarbons and other organic molecules in them. In this volume, we discuss the various phase-transitions, which may occur in petroleum fluids, and we introduce a unified perspective of their phase behaviors. This monograph covers a wide range of topics related to phase behavior. It brings together research and reviews dealing with industry standard methods for modeling the phase behavior of petroleum reservoir fluids at different stages in the process. It provides practical knowledge and real cases essential for achieving optimal production of reservoir fluids, and cost-effective design and operations of pipelines and petroleum processing plants. Having a thorough understanding of all the possible phase transitions in petroleum fluids will allow us to formulate the necessary computational package for their phase behavior prediction regardless of the kind, source, nature of components and thermodynamic conditions.
